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Apple Pudding, Baked, Rich
Line a pie-dish with good short crust. Stew four pounds of apples, and when hot, add a quarter of a pound of butter. Let them stand aside to cool, then add a cupful of cream, four well-beaten eggs, sugar to taste, grated lemon-rind, and grated nutmeg. Stir all well together, then place the mixture in the pie-dish, and bake in a good oven. Serve with Devonshire cream, or custard. Time, half an hour to bake. Sufficient for six persons. Probable cost, 3s.
A custard-bound apple filling in a pastry case, closer to a deep apple tart than to a suet pudding. The instructions assume a cook who already knows how to keep eggs from scrambling.
- Cool the apples first, properlyThe single instruction that decides the dish. Four beaten eggs stirred into hot apple pulp will curdle into threads before the pudding reaches the oven. Let the buttered apples come down to no more than lukewarm, then fold in the cream and eggs.
- "A good oven"The book gives no temperature. A brisk but not fierce heat, in the region of 375-400F (190-200C), suits the dish; start there to set the pastry, and if the custard is still loose at the half hour, drop to 350F rather than pushing the top.
- Baking timeHalf an hour will set a shallow dish. A deep pie-dish holding four pounds of apples plus cream and eggs will want 45 minutes to an hour, until the centre is just barely wobbly. Overbaking weeps liquid into the crust.
- Blind-bake the baseA wet custard filling on raw short crust gives a pale, sodden bottom. Line the dish, chill it, then bake blind at 400F for 15 minutes before filling.
- "Cupful"Victorian cup measures were not standardised; the intent here is roughly half a pint of cream, about 8-10 fl oz. Err on the smaller side, since the apples already carry moisture.
- Four pounds of applesThe recipe does not say whether this is weighed before or after peeling. Bramleys or another cooking apple will collapse to a thick puree once stewed and drained; dessert apples hold their shape and give a chunkier, wetter result.
- Devonshire creamClotted cream, sold in tubs in most supermarkets and by mail order elsewhere. Unsweetened whipped double cream is the nearest substitute; the custard sauce given as the alternative is equally period-correct.
- Probable costThree shillings was a real sum for a family pudding, reflecting the butter, cream and four eggs rather than the apples.
Cassell's covers several things Victorian kitchens called apple pudding: boiled in a basin under suet crust, baked as a batter, or -- as here -- set with eggs and cream in a pastry case, which earns the label "rich." The technique is essentially that of a custard tart borrowed for fruit, and it belongs to a long English tradition of apple dishes thickened with eggs. The instruction to serve it with Devonshire cream reflects the period in which West Country clotted cream was sent well beyond the region, packed in tins and carried by rail. The direction to add sugar "to taste" is in keeping with a book written when the acidity of available apples varied widely.